Best Zucchini Bread Ever

A few weeks ago, my husband Jack returned from a business trip singing the praises of some delicious zucchini bread that one of his co-workers named Troy had brought to the meeting to share with everyone. It was a homemade zucchini bread baked by Troy’s wife Lannette – and Jack said it was the Best Zucchini Bread Ever!

Seriously – Jack would not stop talking about this zucchini bread! For days, he talked about how moist and delicious it was, and that it was perfectly sweet and spicy. And for days, Jack pestered Troy for the recipe so we could make it at home and possibly share it here on A Family Feast.

So I was thrilled when I was introduced to Lannette – and she graciously allowed us to share the recipe with all of you. Scroll below to our recipe card to watch a video showing how it’s made.

This really is the best zucchini bread ever! It is super moist and almost cake-like thanks to a generous amount of shredded zucchini in the batter (we actually used a combination of zucchini and summer squash – which is why you see a little bit of yellow in our bread photos) as well as some applesauce! This bread is perfectly seasoned with cinnamon, and a generous amount of chopped pecans add crunch and texture.

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Martha is part of the husband-wife team that creates A Family Feast. She loves to cook and entertain for family and friends, and she believes that serving a great meal is one of the best ways to show someone that you care. Martha is a self-taught home cook, who loves to read cookbooks and try new recipes. After a decades-long career in business and online marketing, she now runs A Family Feast full-time. Her specialties are baking, desserts, vegetables and pasta dishes.

Hi Elizabeth – It all went in! I suppose if you are using the full 4 cups and it seems extremely wet, you could drain it a bit – but otherwise, just shred it and put it in the batter! Hope you enjoy the recipe!

this is the recipe EXACTLY that I’ve made for almost 40 years EXCEPT, what they did was lower the oil from 1c to 1/2 plus 1/2 applesauce (making it slightly healthier) and do not add more than 2c sugar. 2 1/4 is over kill unless you are going to add that incredible amount of zucchini, it’s usually 2-3c zucchini. Just saying.

Thank you for sharing this recipe. It came out just as stated, moist and extremely tasty. Not to mention, it made my house and car smell great as I took it to work after baking it that morning. Everyone loved it and told me next time I won’t make it out of the parking lot with the loaves in my hand (if they know I’m coming with it). 🙂 Thank you again, this is definitely the BEST Zucchini bread

Thank you! This recipe looks great. I’ve never made any type of zucchini baked goods myself, so sorry if this is a silly question, but does it matter how thick or fine you grate the zucchini and what would you recommend? Also, has anyone tried freezing this to eat later? I have been gifted a lot of zucchini. 🙂

Hi Leah – I used the largest grate size on a box grater – but a smaller grate will work too. We have frozen some of this bread ourselves and it thaws beautifully! Just be sure to wrap it well to avoid any freezer burn. Hope you enjoy the recipe!

Hi Julie–I used 1/3 C coconut oil. I also increased my applesauce to just shy of 1 C and reduced the sugar to 1.5 C. I also decreased the cinnamon to 1 T and added 1 tsp Allspice and 1/4 tsp cloves. Thbread came out absolutely fabulous! Thank you to Martha for sharing your recipe.

Hi. I love zucchini bread and glad I found this recipe. I tried it today and it was delicious. Only problem is that the sides came out a little crisp, the middle was moist. How can I avoid the crispness?

Hi Susan – Glad you enjoyed the recipe. Hard to give you exact advice without knowing more – but you could try a different baking pan (not sure if you used a glass or metal loaf pan?) or maybe wrapping some foil around the outer top edges to prevent it from crisping up too much. If the bottom and sides were just generally overcooked – it sounds like your oven might run hotter than ours and reducing the total baking might help. Hope those ideas are helpful!

I had the opposite problem. My top and sides were perfect, but the bottom just would not cook fully and it got very dense, gooey, and heavy in the bottom. It didn’t rise up as much as expected or as it appears in your photos. Overall it tasted amazing, but any tips for a less dense/heavy result?

It’s hard to say what went wrong Izzy! I’m wondering if all of the ingredients were mixed thoroughly? (Maybe more of the zucchini shreds were near the bottom of the loaf pan when it baked?) Also – were both your baking soda and baking powder fresh? I’m sorry you had problems with the recipe!

Just popped this out of the oven and wow…this really is the best recipe I’ve tried yet. It did take me much longer to cook (1 hour & 10 min) but it was worth it. Very yummy and not too sweet even with all those ingredients. Perfect. Definitely a keeper. Thank you for this recipe!

Can I bake this as mini loaves? Do you know about how many mini loaves it would bake and about how long they would bake? Thanks!! This looks absolutely delicious–I know I’ll want to share it with some neighbors!

Hi Marla – I’ve only made this recipe in the full-size loaf pans so I’m not sure how it will convert (might depend on the size of your mini’s) or the baking time. But this article looks to have some good suggestions: http://www.thekitchn.com/good-questions-38-104585 (Hope this helps!)

What a great recipe! So moist with tons of flavor. I had to improvise a bit as I did not have any applesauce. I substituted with canned pumpkin and a tablespoon of honey. I also used fresh duck eggs in place of regular eggs as that is what I had on the counter at the moment and they tend to be better in baked goods anyway. This is a keeper.

I must have a dozen zucchini bread recipes, but this one is by far the best! Now I have to confess that I made one change that was unintentional. I did not have any applesauce, so I substituted strawberry jam!! I know it sounds weird, and I thought so, too, but it was really really good. Of course I cut way back on the sugar as the jam was really sweet. Next time I will make it with applesauce and I know it will be even better. This is a great recipe.

Hi Rennea – We haven’t tried swapping in honey ourselves so I can’t say for sure. It will add a lot more moisture to the recipe so I’d only be guessing without actually making a test batch. Sorry I can’t be more help!

This bread IS delicious, however, I am following the Weight Watcher plan; any suggestions on how to modify this recipe to a healthier choice (lessen sugar/oils)…or can you give me the points for one think slice 1/2 in thick?

Hi Claudia – I think your best bet would be to search on the Weight Watchers site for a zucchini bread recipe as an alternative to ours. Without a fair amount of recipe testing, I would only be guessing about what changes you could make to the recipe to have it fit the program.

I made mine with Stevia instead of sugar and I used EVOO instead of vegetable oil. I kept the amounts the same. I also did half regular flour and half whole wheat flour. It still came out great. You could probably try some honey or agave but they are wet so might have to try adjusting other ingredients. Good luck!

Hi Camerin – Not a stupid question at all. My answer is ‘all of the above’. We made some ourselves this weekend – gave one away and the other we’ve wrapped in plastic and it has been on our kitchen counter for the last two days. I will probably put it in the fridge later today just to keep it from getting stale. It can also be frozen – just be sure to wrap it well to avoid freezer burn. Hope that helps and we’re very glad you both enjoyed the recipe!

Hi Kristen – The recipe makes two 8-inch loaves so you can vary the serving size depending on how thickly you slices each loaf. I’d estimate that you can get 8 generous slices or 10-12 thinner slices from each loaf.

This zucchini bread recipe is good, though not spectacular, very similar to anything else I have found off the internet. I like the fact that it has apple sauce in it, so you use less oil. I cut the sugar down to 1.5 cups, as over one cup of sugar per loaf sounded like a lot, and sure enough it is plenty sweet with the reduced sugar amount. Honesty I am getting a little weary of all these gushing recipes that make it sound like you have stumbled across the best thing ever. Certainly worth trying, but I would HIGHLY recommend cutting back significantly on the sugar unless you want your teeth to ache every time you take a bite.

Just shared on our FBpage cause this is my new favorite zucchini bread recipe. Thank you for sharing

The first batch I made a couple months ago about 8 loaves. Wrapped (plastic wrap and freezer paper) after cooling and put them in the freezer for around the year. Got one out yesterday and still delish!

I’ve made this twice and it turned out just like the picture and tasted just as good. This is the best zucchini bread I’ve ever tasted. I used fresh zucchini out of the garden both times. At summer’s end I still had zucchini so I froze some in the amounts I would need for this recipe. When I took them out of the freezer and let them thaw, there was a LOT of water in the bag which leaked out as it thawed. I still have all the water/juice as I had set it inside a bowl to thaw. Has anyone tried this with frozen zucchini?

Hmmm, not sure. Freezing anything, especially a high water content vegetable like zucchini is going to change the finished product. Let’s see if anyone else has tried this. Sorry, wish I had a better answer.

Love this recipe! I like to add more spices to mine like cloves, nutmeg, and allspice. My husband and son love them!! (I also like to add Liv fit superfood blend with protein and it’s awesome!) Was wondering where I could find the nutrition facts for these?

Hi Christina – Sounds like you’ve made some great adaptations to the recipe! We unfortunately don’t include nutritional facts for our recipes at this time, but I’ve found that MyFitnessPal is a good, free app that you could use to do the calculations. Hope that helps!

I’m sorry to hear that you had problems with the recipe Laura – yes, you’ll use both – exactly as written. If it was still like soup after baking, it sounds like you might have mis-measured an ingredient along the way or your oven might not have been working correctly? Hard to tell…

Hi Rita – I’m guessing it will make 4-5 of the small loafs depending on how deep your pans are. I haven’t tried making this in that size so I’d only be guessing at the baking time – it will definitely be less.

I had the very best revipe for zucchini bread but lost in when I moved. I have tried several other recipes with no satisfaction, so hoping this recipe is as good as the comments I’ve read here. Thanks for sharing.

Fingers crossed for you Mary – I hope our recipe is as good as your lost recipe! (I had a similar experience with an apple crisp recipe – which I eventually found and it’s now here on our blog. But for years…none of the other recipes I tried could compare!)

VERY moist and delicious! I added 1/2 tsp nutmeg and only 2 C (1 white, 1 brown) of sugar, but it was still a bit too sweet so next time I will only use 1 1/2 C of sugar. But this recipe is a keeper, everyone loved it!!!

Thank you, I’m over 5k feet so I modified for high altitude: I decreased the baking powder to 3/4t, decreased the sugar to 1 3/4 c, I increased the oven to 375, and it cooked in about 50 minutes. Other modifications I made: increased the applesauce to 3/4c and decreased the oil to 1/4 c (used coconut oil), I used 1Tbl pumpkin pie spice vs 4. I increased nuts (used walnuts) to 1 1/2 cups. I also used 3 chia eggs (1Tbl chia seeds: 2.5Tbl water=1 egg). Turned out amazing! Thank you!

Some people peel off the peeling. Do you use it all, and do you seed it? Thank you. My friend peels hers, takes out seeds and cooks it. Then mashes it down to measure. Never heard of anyone else doing it that way, but it tastes good.

Hi Sue – We haven’t tried subbing coconut oil ourselves so I can’t say for sure from our own experience. However, if you scroll through the most recent comments, we did have one reader who told us that she increased the applesauce and reduced the amount of oil, swapping in coconut oil. Sounds like it worked for her!

I just made this zucchini bread recipe and made Ben was hard on the top and not moist like the picture. The inside is good but I am just wondering if I did something wrong. I bake it for 50 mins, and because I did not have enough sugar for the 2 1/4 cups I used 1 1/4 cup of sugar and the rest I used stevia. Help😊

Hi Kelly – Sounds like the Stevia was the culprit for the problems you described. It been a while since I baked with Stevia but from what I remember, it isn’t a 1 to 1 equal swap so that is likely the cause of your problems.

I used this recipe last squash season. The best of several I tried. I planted zucchini squash just for making this recipe. So excited to make this for the first time this season. Made yesterday. After it was in the oven,noticed grated zucchini was still on counter. Still delicious. Had a good laugh at myself.

Thank you Lynnette, this zucchini bread is delicious. I have tried other recipes, but none were this moist. I think the applesauce, along with the cinnamon gives your recipe the perfect moistness, and spice flavor. This bread is awesome. I made it last night, and bringing one loaf to our Church 4th/ of July dinner tomorrow evening. I know your recipe will be a big hit with my Church Sister’s. Thank you Lynnette, God Bless.

This was my first time making zucchini bread but I will definitely use 2-2.5 cups of zucchini next time (which after some research, most recipes call for). I used 3.5-4 cups and the bread took 60 minutes to bake in a convection oven. The ends and bottom were overbaked but the center was still gooey. Still tasted pretty good though. I’ll have to give it another try so with less zucchini so it bakes more evenly.

Hi Julie – I’ve never tried baking these as muffins so I’m just guessing here without doing some recipe testing ourselves. Using our Morning Glory Muffin recipe as a general guide (it has similarly thick and dense batter), I think you can keep it at the same 350 degrees F, and I’d suggest checking it after 15-20 minutes, but it would likely take closer to 25-30 minutes. If you try it, please let us know how it comes out! (https://www.afamilyfeast.com/morning-glory-muffins/)

Hi Carol – We haven’t made this recipe into muffins ourselves but I believe a few of our readers left comments telling that they did so and it worked out for them. I’m sure the baking time will vary from what is listed as the baking time for a loaf. Let us know how it comes out!

Love, love, love this recipe!! Just curious if anyone has ever substituted bananas in place of the zucchini? The base of this recipe is so delicious so I’m curious if it would make a delicious banana bread as well…

I made this today but used only a little under two cups of sugar, the batter was still really sweet and I was concerned it was going to be too sweet, but it turned out perfect. I made one regular loaf pan, one mini and six mini So yummy!!!

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